Verify that "lspci -k" shows a kernel driver in use for your sound device. Also "aplay -l" should list your devices.

If you are dual-booting Windows, that sometimes puts the sound device in some kind of sleep mode on shutdown which may confuse the ALSA driver in the kernel. Try completely removing power from your computer for several seconds or disable ALSA powersave in menuconfig.

That's your audio device. It should use the kernel module called snd_hda_intel. This is not in your lspci -k output but I'm fairly certain and I'm using that for my system, too. Here's my lsmod | grep snd output:

Do you have those modules and if you do, are they loaded, or if not, then did you compile them into the kernel? I'm fairly certain that the answer to these questions is 'no.' So start there _________________Diplomacy is the art of letting the other party have things your way.
-- Daniele Vare

I have been upgrading kernels for a while without looking but it used to be set and I'd swear that sound worked on this kernel. I'm building another kernel with a few more devices built in. I agree that I used to see snd_hda_intel as the driver...